<p>Trying to fit social sciences into a schedule is a pain. Especially when you realize that the Philosophy class that fits so well time-wise is on the South Quad, and you have to get there in the 10 minutes between classes. Is that even possible?</p>
<p>I assume you mean to Gregory Hall or possibly to the Armory. That would be cutting it real close. Total distance is about .4 mile, meaning about an eight minute or longer walk that does not count getting out of the class and leaving the building (in a crowd) and entering the next building and getting into the class.</p>
<p>Actually, it’s David Kinley Hall, and that’s one reason scheduling is so difficult. Note to self: time is only one aspect of creating a schedule; space being the other…yeesh!</p>
<p>I used to go Loomis to Architecture building. It’s doable but usually took me 12 or 13. I’d say leave early, bike, or take the 13 Silver. It stops near Loomis and drops at Main Library.</p>
<p>I went from DCL to Gregory for my Philosophy class my last semester there… it took more than 10 minutes. I was regularly late to Philosophy, but I just told the TA I had another class and he didn’t really care. He was pretty cool. I didn’t really care either, though, because I was a graduating senior and the class before it was an actual engineering class that took precedence.</p>
<p>Philosophy guys are usually mellow anyway. Isn’t that the existential point? The strategy, I think, since most of the classes that count towards fulfilling the social science requirement are on the opposite side of the campus from most engineering classes, and therefore, engineering students, is to schedule the course as the first class of the day, with a gap after it, so that you can wander over before, and meander back over to the “real” class after. That, however, plays havoc with schedules.</p>
<p>I think it’s funny that you put the class off until senior year. Was it after a graduation check that you realized you still needed some social science credit? Here you are for all practical purposes a Mech E graduate tripped up by Nietzsche. Makes me laugh in an existential way at any rate.</p>
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<p>TERRIBLE IDEA!!! Let me tell you from firsthand experience, I did that one semester for a mythology class… I (inadvertently) skipped that class so many times! Oops! Having an unimportant class first and early really destroys your motivation to get up and go on those freezing cold mornings in Chambana.</p>
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<p>No, I intentionally put it off. I didn’t take it earlier because I wanted to get into the technical stuff fast because I couldn’t stand all the humanities. I had at least one humanities class each of the last 3 semesters there, and it significantly lightened my load my last semesters. For example, my final semester I took ME 470, ME 420, MATH 463… and PHIL 102. Haha. It was pretty awesome. Similar story the semester before that with GEOG 101.</p>
<p>However, it meant my last semester I had a total of 14 hours, and only 11 of them were difficult hours in any way shape or form. It really helped me curb senioritis… then again, senioritis didn’t really hit me that hard because I knew I was going to grad school.</p>
<p>I get what you’re saying about motivation, but if you have to go from one side of campus to the other to get there in 10 minutes, wouldn’t that affect your motivation to go for the “last” part of the class since you already missed 10 minutes anyway. Plus, when it’s 10 below, it sucks to go cross-campus no matter what time of day it is. I do see your courseload argument though, but that would apply in freshman year to cushion the high school to college transition jolt that many people experience as much as lightening your load in senior year. By then you’re a scheduling pro, and used to the grind of classes. I guess it’s 6 of one compared to a half dozen of another as far as when to take the blowoff courses. He’s thinking Macro Economics as his social science, along with Calc 2, Mechanics, Intro to Matrix theory, AE 100 and iefx ENG 198 (Eng 100 substitute).</p>
<p>The courseload thing does frontload your college experience a little bit, but I didn’t mind so much. Some people would though.</p>
<p>And I had no motivational problems going across campus if I was already out and about. The hard part is when you are still in your warm, cozy bed and you have to get up and trudge to class in single digit weather at 8 am. That is infinitely harder than doing the same thing at 2 pm after you have been up for a while.</p>
<p>When your son looks to take ECON, my suggestion is that if the only possibility is to take it with Fred Gottheil, he should put that course off until a later semester. Gottheil is a horrible professor, and if you ask me, a horrible person when it comes to his students.</p>
<p>Interesting…Intro to Anthro fits in the same timeslot and lists the instructor as opposed to ECON 101 which doesn’t list an instructor…Got any tips on a social science course that was decent, if it fits his schedule?</p>
<p>The only tip I can offer is that I enjoyed PHIL 102 quite a bit. I don’t know about instructors because it is one of those huge, TA-taught classes, but if there happens to be one taught by Estrada, I highly recommend him. He should still be there, as I don’t think he was within a year of finishing his PhD when I took it last spring, I just don’t know if he is TAing. Other than that, I generally didn’t really enjoy any of my gen ed classes.</p>
<p>My kid took Intro to Anthro this semester. She’s liked it. Econ would be more math-y if that’s better.</p>
<p>Boneh3ad: Yes, it was many many many years ago, but I LOVED Professor Gottheil, and he was the reason I switched my major from Psych to Business.</p>
<p>I understand that he may have gotten old and stale since then, BUT, I know a freshman this year who is taking him and also loves him. So, each his own, I guess.</p>
<p>I guess so. But I really got turned off by the fact that he refused to help students at all. If you emailed him, he would ignore you. If you went to go talk to him after class, he would just say “go ask a TA” and then ignore you, regardless of the fact that the TA already couldn’t answer the question. It was absolutely terrible.</p>
<p>I also had a bad TA, but that has little to do with Gottheil himself, although I don’t doubt that he had a role in deciding that the first two weeks of discussion should be spent covering what the slope and y-intercept of a line was. I mean, honestly, I don’t think people should be in college if they don’t know what those two things are.</p>
<p>It was really just a bad experience, made even worse because of its contrast with the fact that almost all of my engineering professors were awesome and were genuinely willing to help you if you needed it. Even the TA’s were competent and usually helpful. I can only think of one bad TA I had within the engineering departments.</p>
<p>When I took it (about 3 years ago) everyone I knew disliked Gottheil and tried to get into Petry’s class.</p>
<p>Also, to Treetopleaf, one ECON course is required for engineering, so regardless of if Balthezar’s son took Anthro first, he would eventually need ECON.</p>
<p>Bone, while I see that an Econ is required for the MechE Undergrad Degree, I don’t see it as being one of the requirements for AE, but I’ll make sure he asks his advisor.</p>
<p>That is both surprising and seemingly true. I thought pretty much all the engineering departments required either micro or macro.</p>
<p>LOL. One of life’s mercies is that I never had to take Econ. Took English classes instead, hoping to learn to write.</p>